66 LONDON PORTFOLIO BETWEEN THE ACTS BY RICHARD AVEDON i'" : .":" .,/ '" . ,,' \... ;. ... ';. - '. -:.- '":. . ',oJ.... . :.. :, 4'-" : <,'::' .' '. T HE buoyancy of any era is epito- mized by its performers, not by its politicians. In Britain these days, the Labour bubble may have been pricked, but the country's newfound exu- berance is still on display in the perform- ing arts, where the roguish feminist energy of Aisling O'Sullivan, who burns up the stage in Martin McDonagh's "The Crip- ple of Inishmaan," coexists with the intel- lectual prowess of John Wood's evocation of A. E. Housman in Tom Stoppard's "The Invention of Love." London's gravitational pull may even lure Kenneth Greve, the much sought-after young star of the Royal Danish Ballet, to Britain's Royal Ballet. Meanwhile, the West End's Old Guard seems to grow stronger and more brazen in this expansive climate: Judi Dench bril- liandy faces down loss in David Hare's ' y's View;" and Ian Hohn as a belea- guered and hectoring King Lear captures the culture's sense of Conservative collapse. American swagger has filtered not .: '< .<;;.: ' ';<.;.., /;>>.:. ....- '.; ".;.:...;., . ': \:_' "n ,.',':::.;. :.: '-:':'" < , '-' â.:,..:-- ', ;' -.,.;....:::.:>. ....; " . .\- ''0, ;'" ,::: .If.(>' \.. , '.... :::r..: , " only into English politics but also into English playwriting. The Young Turks used to lampoon Americans as clowns of capitalism; now the new prize-winning writers, like Patrick Marber and Jez But- terworth, adopt high-energy slang and absorb the streamlined storytelling of masters like Mamet and Shepard. While Tony Blair is busy deconstructing Con- servative social polic the same elegant revision is being practiced on the stage. The choreographer Matthew Bourne, an imaginative storyteller, whose all-male "Swan Lake" will be coming to Broad- way this fall, has recendy put a new spin on "Cinderellà' by setting her in a dys- functional family during the blitz. And Janet McTeer's memorable :full-tilt Nora in "A Doll's House" clearly touched a nerve in England's disenchanted elec- torate, which slammed the door on eigh- teen years of Tory rule as bravely and as nervously as Nora slams it on her blink- ered husband. -JOHN LAHR The new playwrights: Martin McDonagh, Patrick Marber, and fez Butterworth.